


Behind Schedule

by nymja



Category: The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo, Uprooted - Naomi Novik
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-10 10:04:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4387574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nymja/pseuds/nymja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Alina Starkov has a magical squatter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Behind Schedule

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like these two series demanded a crossover.

**Day One.**  
~~~~

There was a man on her porch. One, Alina suspected, wasn’t young enough to be a new orphan.

She took a few cautious steps, the wood she gathered tucked under an arm as she made her way to the entrance of Keramzin. The man was sitting on a rocking swing Mal built a few weeks ago, and the only word Alina could think of to describe him was  _contained._ Like fire in a lantern, or rice boiling in a closed pot. His dark hair was tidy, his embroidered waistcoat was ironed, and his black boots were shining. One of his legs was resting neatly over the other, as he stared at a pocket watch held in his hand.

“What do  _you_ want, miserable creature?” He asked, after she had stared for a minute or two.

“How long have you been on my porch.”

His lips thinned. He didn’t answer. Instead he just stared at the pocket watch, as it ticktick _ticked._

Alina sighed, and adjusted the logs under her arms. “Well. Are you staying long?”

“I’ve already stayed quite long enough,” the man said sourly. To his watch.

She tilted her head. The man still didn’t move. Or look at her. Rude, really. Finally, she frowned. “Just. Don’t scare the children, then.”

His lips thinned. His watch ticked.

When Alina finally managed to walk passed him, she stuck to the edges of the porch and decided she finally needed to have that talk with Mal about putting up a fence.

 

**Day Two.**

“He’s still there,” Mal muttered from behind a curtain, as he looked out the window of their kitchen to spy on their porch.

Alina sighed as she brought a hammer down on top of a nail. It wasn’t the best start to a bolt for their door, but it was, at least, a start. “Did he at least eat the soup.”

“No. He’s waving a hand over it.”

“To…cool it?” Alina asked, with an optimism she didn’t feel.

Mal sent her a glance. “…I don’t think so.”

 

**Day Two and a Half.**

  
“I need access to every time piece in your home,” the man said from the foot of their bed.

Alina startled awake, grabbing a sheet to her chest and making a sputtering sound she didn’t want to ever remember making again.

Mal swore as he frantically blinked sleep from his eyes and pushed Alina behind him (a hard feat to do, in a bed). “Who the hell are you?!”

The man didn’t answer. He only crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow. “ _Well.”_

Mal glared. “Well  _what_.”

“The time pieces.”

Alina’s jaw went slack, “How did you even get in here?”

The shiny black toe of the man’s shiny black boot tapped staccato against the floor. “I see I’ll have to search for them  _myself_.” He declared, clearly offended as he swerved on a heel and made for their bedroom door.

Mal looked at Alina.  
Alina looked at Mal.

“I’m. Just going back to sleep,” Alina declared, pulling the blanket over her shoulders.

Mal sighed, pulling himself into a sitting position. “I’ll put a chair under the knob.”

 

**Day Three.**

“Three silver the cat wins,” Misha whispered to Alina, as the pair of them watched the man and Oncat stare each other down on the porch through a window. 

“You’re on,” Alina replied around a mouth full of sweet bun.

Outside, the man scowled in distaste and defeat before turning back to his watch. Oncat licked his paw through a feline smirk.

“Damn it,” Alina sighed, putting coins into Misha’s outstretched, tiny little hand.

  
**Day Four.**

“We could have you arrested,” Mal said, game slung over his shoulder as he watched the man line up every clock they had on their porch.

The man didn’t look up from his clearly important work, “By who. You’re clearly vagrants.”

Mal frowned. “I’m not a vagrant.”

“Move, you insipid cur.” the man said, readjusting a pewter clock once more. “You’re blocking the light.”

Mal looked at the man, his row of steadily ticking clocks, and decided that his time would be better spent elsewhere.

When he finally moved passed him, Mal stuck to the furthest edges of the porch.

 

**Day Four and a Half.**

“Why did no one see it fit to inform me that this shack is placed on top of a leyline?” The man demanded from the foot of their bed, a broken chair at the foot of his shiny black boots.

“Saints!” Swore Mal, as Alina instinctively hurled a book at the intruder.

 

**Day Five.**

“You really need to go.” Alina said, taking a seat next to the man on their swing, “Or Mal’s going to shoot you. And I’ll probably let him.”

The man said nothing, only stared at this watch and tapped his chin. “There was a wizard here, before. I recognize the remnants of his magic.”

Alina sighed.  _Wizard._ Of course. “I’m sure he was a very important wizard-”

“Sickly girl-,” he said, turning and facing her for the first time. Alina sputtered ( _Sickly-?!)_ “-do you know The Heretic?”

Alina’s tongue suddenly adhered itself to the roof of her mouth.

“Hmph,” the man said with a condescending smirk of triumph, “I see.”

She took a slow breath, “How do you know the Darkling?”

“ _Darkling.”_ The man scoffed, before lowering himself to look at her again, “Oh, I see. That was a serious question.”

“ _How_?”

“I had the misfortune of rooming with him during my early lessons at the palace,” the man said, dismissively flicking away lint that did not exist on his waistcoat. “Never did care for him. He enjoyed,” his lips thinned once more, “ _Theatrics.”_

“I stabbed him in the chest.”

“Hardly efficient.”

“It worked.”

“Apparently.” 

Alina shook her head. “Why are you here?”

The man looked at his watch, “Because someone is incapable of being punctual.” His eyes slid to her, and Alina got the distinct impression she was being shamed for something, “Although no one told me this house was a conduit. Such a thing would undoubtedly interfere with scrying,” the man once again brushed off imaginary lint, “Even for a wizard of extraordinarily high caliber.”

Alina shrugged. “When do you go home.”

The man snapped his watch shut. “Now.”

“ _Now_?”

“Yes. It seems I’ve arrived far too early for  _dawdlers.”_

Alina said nothing. She only watched as the man unfolded himself, and walked at a brisk pace down the path leading away from Keramzin, until there was nothing left to be seen.

 

**Day Five and a Half.**

“You’re sure?” Mal asked, eyeing the door with a dresser in front of it.

Alina yawned, snuggling into her pillow, “I’m sure.”

Mal sent one last glance at the entrance to their bedroom, before hesitantly snuffing out the candle.

 

**Day Six.**

There was a woman at her door. One, Alina suspected, wasn’t punctual.

Still, she opened it. The woman on the other side was barefoot, brown hair snarled with twigs and leaves. Mud staining several spots on her dress. And under her arms, a basket of fruit that Alina instinctively knew not to eat.

“You’re late,” Alina said slowly.

The woman’s eyebrows raised, and she turned her head to see the row of passive-aggressive clocks on the porch. Her lips quirked.

“Detour.” She explained.

Alina instantly preferred her to the man. “Do you want…soup?” She offered.

The woman nodded, “I love soup.”

Alina smiled.  
The woman smiled back.

–

“You know,” Mal said, ladling out some of Alina’s stew into the traveling forest-woman’s bowl, “He waited a long time to see you.”

The woman shrugged, taking a hearty spoonful, “He’ll still be waiting somewhere else. Eventually we’ll cross paths. We always do.”

Alina grinned, “I’m Alina. This is my husband, Mal.”

A glob of stew dropped from the woman’s spoon onto her dress. She didn’t notice. “Agnieszka. And I think we’ve been meant to meet for a long time.”


End file.
